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The People & Language of Early Scotland

The Picts

The Picts were perhaps the last of the free Britons by the time the Roman Empire packed up and went home. Therefore it is likely that the Picts in the north spoke a similar language and shared a similar culture to the Britons of the south of Scotland, who spoke a form of old Welsh. Although history has lost the Pictish language, many clues remain to deciphering the culture in the wealth of Pictish symbol stones littered around the Scottish countryside along with a form of alphabet called Ogham, which was developed originally in Ireland, showing that the Gaelic influence on the Picts is a lot older than was previously thought.

Take a video tour of the mysterious Pictish symbol stones.

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Pictish Symbol Stone Picture Gallery

Stones from the Meigle Museum near Perth. These two pictures are in fact of the same stone (the back of the stone on the left, the front on the right). This is stone No. 2 at the Meigle Museum, with depictions of huntsmen, warriors, a centaur and a Christian scene from the story of Daniel in the lion's den. This stone dates from the ninth century.

Rodney's Stone in Morayshire in the form of a Pictish cross-slab shows two sea monsters facing each other, a decorative creature, a double disc and a 'Z' rod. There is also some Ogham on the stone, which spells out the name Ethernan. The stone dates back to around the eighth century.

The back of a Pictish cross-slab found at a ruined church at Invergowrie in Perthshire, dated from the ninth century. The three figures represent clerics who hold books. The central figure appears to be holding a censer, used for burning incense. Below are two dragons eating each other's tails.

The Inchyra Stone with a clear Ogham inscription. The Ogham here spells SETU - as is the case with most Pictish Ogham, the script is unintelligible when transliterated using Latin letters.